In various surgical procedures, such as certain abdominal surgical procedures and surgery on the lungs, extensive suturing may be required. In the past, this suturing has been accomplished for the most part by utilizing the standard well known sterile sutures and surgical needles of various types. The suturing procedure is usually time consuming and, hence, requires the patient be kept under anesthesia for considerable lengths of time which, in some instances, may be dangerous. In surgery on the lung, it is often required the lung be collapsed and when repairing this surgery with sutures and needles, it may take a considerable period of time. To aid the patient, it is desired the time the lung is collapsed be kept to a minimum. Also in lung surgery it is difficult to immediately obtain air-tight closures with sutures and needles which, again, may be harmful to the patient or extend the recovery period from the operation. Also, in certain types of abdominal surgery the suturing must be accomplished deep within the abdominal cavity which may be difficult and tedious. Hence, it can be appreciated that a surgical device which can reduce the time for suturing in an operation and simplify the manipulative procedures for both the surgeon and the nurse would be very desirable.
In the recent past, there have been developed a number of types of stapling instruments broadly termed linear staplers. Representative types of such stapling instruments are disclosed and described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,252,643, 3,269,630, 3,275,211, 3,494,533, 3,589,589, 3,692,224, 4,272,002, and 4,273,281. Broadly, these instruments describe a supporting jaw or member which is adapted to be located on one side of tissue to be sutured. A working face; i.e., the mechanism carrying the appropriate staples is located on the opposite side of the tissue or organ to be sutured. The instrument includes control means which allows the surgeon to urge the supporting jaw which is going to become the anvil for the staples and the working face which is carrying the staples together to attain an appropriate gap between the anvil and the staple. The staples to be fired are usually disposed in one or more lines of staples along the length of the working face of the instrument. When more than one line is used, the position of the staples is staggered or offset in adjacent lines. Generally, the appropriate firing lever fires all of the staples at once. In some of the instruments, it is possible to fire the staples sequentially starting at one end of the working face and extending to the other end of the face. However, in all of the instruments of the prior art it has been necessary to fire all of the staples in the working face of the instrument. The instruments are made in different sizes to fire different lengths of the line of staple. However, in many surgical procedures, the surgeon will not know exactly what length of staple line will be required until actually at the position of starting to suture the appropriate tissue or organ. Hence, in most surgical procedures, the stapling instrument used will have a working face and supporting jaw longer than that which is required to close the appropriate area. When this happens, the staples not used to close the organ or the tissue are still fired and ejected and left within the surgical site. Presently, the linear stapling devices as they are known provide a fixed length of the staple line generally 30, 55, or 90 millimeters in length. Hence, in use if the incision or the wound to be closed is exactly a distance of 30 or 55 millimeters, you obtain an efficient closure. However, if the wound is 35 millimeters or 40 millimeters in length, you must use the 55 millimeter size stapler. This means a portion of the staples (15 to 20 millimeters) will be discharged by the instrument and deposited in the operative cavity which, as previously mentioned, may be harmful to the patient. On the other hand, if you have a 35 or 40 millimeter incision and you attempt to utilize a 30 millimeter instrument, you will not obtain a complete closure in that you will not obtain hemostatis and hence the smaller instrument cannot be used.